


incandescent in the darkest night

by weakinteraction



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-04-28 16:37:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14453376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/pseuds/weakinteraction
Summary: Rose gets more than she bargained for when she follows someone sneaking away from the camp.





	incandescent in the darkest night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenofspade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/gifts).



Rose emerges from the _Falcon_ , satisfied with her work. She can't reserve the fatigue in the hyperdrive, but at least with regular rotation the field guides will wear evenly.

Her eyes have become so adjusted to the darkness inside the engine housing that it takes her a moment to realise that not having to squint against the sky means that darkness fell hours ago.

The stars are different again, here.

Rose is used to the subtle changes in the constellations that come with travel between nearby star systems, but with each jump they've made recently the sky has changed completely.

Now, they're a kiloparsec or more further spinward than Rose has ever been. More than almost everyone except a few of the pilots of Black Squadron with the most colourful histories. The maps on which their hyperspace routes are marked are incomplete, marked with centuries-old smuggling drop points and rumoured remains of ancient civilisations. The water-moon aquatics they'd encountered five days ago hadn't existed at all according to the maps, and had never heard of the New Republic, let alone the Resistance or the First Order.

But the First Order will be coming for the Resistance, even here deep in the Unknown Regions. This isn't a base, just a temporary camp while they refuel, repair and replenish their supplies. Everyone sleeps close to the ships, in case the alarms sound suddenly and they need to evacuate again.

Rose is about to find somewhere to sleep herself when she spies movement in the outer fringes of the camp. Instantly suspicious, she follows, keeping in the shadows of the X-wings. It would only take one person to betray their location to the First Order. It wouldn't even have to be an infiltrator, just someone who missed their family sneaking out of the suppressor field to try to make contact.

The figure, barely visible as a silhouette against the unfamiliar stars, walks with purpose. Whoever they are, they're not trying to be furtive. Eventually, Rose has to break cover to continue following, but if whoever this is is aware of her pursuit, there's no obvious sign of it.

Rose follows until they reach the cliff. They've put the ships down on a rocky plateau high above a huge rainforest, the thick canopy kilometres below.

Rose decides that she can't continue in the dark, for fear of one slip sending her plummeting downwards until she crashes through the trees, but her quarry seems to have no such qualms, climbing down to a small outcropping.

And then, there is a sudden flash of brilliant blue, piercing the night, and Rose sees Rey's face, illuminated by the shimmering blade of her lightsaber.

Rose ducks behind a rock. A traitor she could deal with. A lonely, miserable comrade she would be able to talk sense into. But Rey ... Over the weeks of their flight, she's seen the way she brings everyone together, felt the hope she's kindled just by her presence. She's felt the radiance of that smile for herself. And if she's imagined that there's something in the smile she receives that's just for her, there's no real harm in _imagining_ , is there? It's not as though she's actually about to launch herself at those upward-curved lips and kiss them, however much she might like the idea. She's learned her lesson from that rash moment with Finn on Crait.

Rose knows that she should head back to the camp, get a few hours' sleep before it's time to wake up and get back to work.

But she stays where she is, watching as Rey progresses through a set of movements and forms, alternately sweeping the lightsaber through the air and holding it stock still, as though meditating on it. She's impossibly graceful, and it feels like a privilege to see it, a shared intimacy even though she still doesn't know whether Rey is aware of her presence at all.

But then, the blade falters, arcs splitting off from it, sparks flying around it. Rey deactivates it quickly.

Darkness falls again.

"I know you're there," Rey says. Her tone is not accusatory or chiding, she's simply stating a fact.

Rose comes out from behind her rock. "I'm sorry," she says. "I was just..."

"It's all right," Rey says, already climbing back up. Rose offers her a hand when she reached the top, and Rey takes it, and Rose can feel that smile again, even if she can't see it clearly.

"It isn't supposed to do that, is it?" Rose ventures, once Rey is standing next to her.

"No," Rey says, a hint of frustration entering her voice. "I thought I had it aligned properly this time."

"You seemed to be doing pretty well," Rose says. "To start with, I mean. Not that I'm, you know, a Jedi Master or anything."

"It was taking far too much of my concentration just to keep it focused at all," Rey says. "It wasn't like that before it broke. And of course once I sensed you, there was no chance."

"I'm sorry," Rose says again.

"There are worse distractions," Rey says. She puts a hand on Rose's arm and Rose feels her heart skipping a beat. A moment later she pulls it away again, saying, "I'm sorry. You--"

"No, no, I--" And Rose is trying to work out what to say, and how to say it, and why it's so difficult to put into words what she can feel between them, and maybe a kiss really _would_ be the best way, when her mouth opens and out comes, "I realigned the Falcon's hyperdrive."

"Thank you," Rey says, with utter sincerity. And then she's smiling again and it's a moment before Rose realises that she knows that because she can feel Rey's lips against hers and Rey is kissing her and maybe she had better kiss her back, so she does, and the stars are ones she's never seen before but it doesn't matter, because there's always a light in the darkness.


End file.
